'Hope for Haiti Now' tops the albums chart, outselling Susan Boyle
As projected, the all-star Hope for Haiti Now charity album is now officially the biggest album in the country. It tops the new Billboard 200 album sales chart with 171,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan — a figure that’s even more impressive when you consider that it only covers two full days (Jan. 23 and 24) and that all those sales were digital, a first for a Billboard 200 winner.
Moving to No. 2, we find Susan Boyle, who sold another 86,000 copies of I Dreamed a Dream last week. That might have been enough to teach a lesson to those pesky Vampire Weekend kids for displacing her at No. 1 the previous week — their Contra is down at No. 6 now with 43,000 copies sold — but Hope for Haiti Now‘s strong sales ruled out a return to her onetime throne.
No. 4 goes to indie heroes Spoon, with 53,000 copies sold of their excellent Transference. Those aren’t exactly Vampire Weekend numbers — hey, we can’t all be those guys — but it’s still a career best for Spoon, beating the 46,000/No. 10 debut they scored for 2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.
At No. 5, the 2010 Grammy Nominees compilation somehow found 49,000 people who were willing to pay good money for a bunch of 2009 hits by artists like the Black Eyed Peas, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Beyoncé that they certainly could have bought individually from iTunes or a similar service if they didn’t own them already. If you are one of the people who buys these Grammy nominee CDs, please explain yourself in the comments section, because I seriously don’t get it.
Pop-punk act Motion City Soundtrack sold 27,000 copies of their Mark Hoppus-produced My Dinosaur Life, earning them a No. 15 finish.
And that was it for Top 20 debuts this week. Did you buy any of these albums? Surprised by how low or high anyone placed? Make yourself known below.
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